With [this letter] receive my gratitude more than ever...." Others wrote equally enthusiastic reports, with abundant praise being given to the singers as well. However, there were detractors who criticised both the opera and its composer: its new style and its restless harmonic shifts into remote keys did not please all. 45 years later it was stated that "Bellini's style was abstruse, discontinuous, distorted, and lacking in distinction, that it alternated between the serio and the buffo and the semi-serio."19th century performancesThe opera was first performed at La Scala, Milan on 14 February 1829, with Henriette Méric-Lalande and Domenico Reina in the leading roles. Alessandro Sanquirico, the well-established set designer of the time, designed the sets, and the opera was presented on a triple bill, along with the ballets Buondelmonte and L'avviso ai maritati. Within Italy it received performances in over 50 cities until Turin in 1866: these included a revival at Milan's La Scala plus a performance in Bologna in 1836 with Carolina Ungher, in Florence and Regio di Calabria in 1840, Brescia in August 1850, Milan again in 1857, and then in Turin in 1866. As noted by Tom Kaufman, its last-known presentation in the 19th century was in Catania in 1875 with Ana Eyre as Alaide. Abroad, it was first presented in Vienna in 1831, in Paris in 1832, in London on 23 June 1832, in New York on 10 November 1834, in Lisbon in 1835, and in Madrid as La estranjera in January 1850.Warrack and West20th century and beyondFollowing its last-known performance in 1875, the opera was first revived in April 1935 at La Scala with other revivals beginning in 1954 in Bellini's hometown of Catania. It was staged again between 1968 (at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo) up to 1972 with Renata Scotto in the title role. Since the 1970s the opera has made several appearances within Europe with Scotto again performing in Venice in 1970 under conductor Ettore Gracis, while in 1969 a concert performance at Carnegie Hall featured Montserrat Caballé under the baton of Anton Guadagno. Recordings exist of all three of these performances. Another production in Catania, with Elena Souliotis in the major role, was given at the Teatro Massimo in 1971. A recording exists of a concert performance in the Cour Jacques Coeur in Montpellier in August 1989. There was also a performance that year as part of the Spoleto Festival